In a turn of events, Judge Paul McCallum of Dedham decided to dismiss the criminal case against Theodore McCarrick, the former Roman Catholic Cardinal. The decision comes after allegations arose in which McCarrick was charged with molesting a 16-year-old boy back in 1974. The surprising twist in the case was based on the argument that Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Theodore McCarrick’
Pope drops bombshell – naming new Vatican doctrinal chief
Monday, July 3rd, 2023
Pope Francis, who has a knack for dropping bombshells in July when his predecessors would normally leave town for a summer holiday. He has again started off the month with a bang by naming Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández of La Plata (Argentina) as the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Read more
Prosecutors challenge medical report finding McCarrick not competent to stand trial
Thursday, March 2nd, 2023
Prosecutors are challenging the medical report claiming Mr Theodore McCarrick is not competent to stand trial on charges he sexually abused a teen in the 1970s. McCarrick is a laicised former cardinal, McCarrick’s legal team filed the report on 27 February in Massachusetts’ Dedham District Court based on a medical evaluation that found McCarrick, 92, Read more
Why the Catholic Church can’t put the clergy sex abuse scandal behind it
Monday, September 13th, 2021
A day of reckoning for a once-powerful prince of the Roman Catholic Church had finally come. Frail and 91, former cardinal Theodore McCarrick was arraigned last week on charges that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old boy at Wellesley College in the 1970s. As startling and historic as that event may be, it’s years too late Read more
Call to end papal plausible deniability
Monday, November 16th, 2020
Pope Francis gets a pass mark, just, for his handling of Theodore McCarrick’s recidivist sexual abuse according to Anne Barrett Doyle, the co-director of BishopAccountability.org. While praising the Vatican for releasing the findings of the McCarrick report, survivors say more must be done. “In many ways, this is an impressive report—the Vatican’s first forthright account Read more
Vatican’s McCarrick report forces debate on power and abuse
Thursday, November 12th, 2020
The Vatican’s report into ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has raised uncomfortable questions the Holy See will have to confront going forward, chief among them what it’s going to do about current and future clergy who abuse their power to sexually abuse adults. Priests, lay experts and canon lawyers alike say the Vatican needs to revisit how Read more
Still saintly? McCarrick report complicates JPII’s legacy
Thursday, November 12th, 2020
A new Vatican report’s revelations that Pope John Paul II disregarded reports about ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual misconduct had Catholics on Wednesday debating the legacy of one of the modern church’s towering figures. The report triggered questions about whether John Paul was rushed through the saint-making process, and whether the author of contemporary Catholic teaching Read more
Lay advisors want Vatican to release McCarrick files
Thursday, June 13th, 2019
Lay advisers to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) want the Holy See to be more open about former archbishop Theodore McCarrick. They want the USCCB to ask for all the relevant documents and the results of diocesan and archdiocesan investigations about McCarrick to be released. Both the National Advisory Council to the US Read more
Ex-Vatican envoy in hiding calls Pope Francis a blatant liar
Thursday, June 13th, 2019
Dissident retired archbishop Carlo Vigano has accused Pope Francis of “blatantly lying” in saying he had no knowledge of sexual abuse allegations against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In a series of emails from an undisclosed location, Vigano told the Washington Post that Francis and Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI must come clean about what they knew of McCarrick’s Read more
Former Cardinal McCarrick faces laicisation. What does it mean?
Thursday, February 14th, 2019
Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington who last summer was removed from public ministry and who then resigned from the College of Cardinals, could also be dismissed from the clerical state, one of the highest forms of punishment issued to priests. Also known as laicisation and sometimes referred to colloquially as defrocking, a Read more